And the shadow behind the whistle blower

BY RAFAEL PRIETO ZARTHA

Published 08.23.06

On November 16, 2004 the Mayor's International Cabinet, the Latin American Chamber of Commerce of Charlotte and the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce hosted a reception at the Levine Museum of the New South to recognize a local hero.

Eduardo Aguirre, Jr., the current US ambassador in Spain, was acknowledged for his accomplishments as the first director of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) of the Department of Homeland Security.

Aguirre, a Cuban exile who arrived to the country in 1961 through the Operation Peter Pan when he was a teenager, had worked for First Union Bank in uptown from October 1972 to February 1977.

During the cocktail party in his honor, Aguirre talked graciously about his memories of Charlotte and focused his remarks on the delivery of services by the immigration system.

Then Aguirre said the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the defunct federal agency "had been the target of serious criticism for its slow responses to immigrant applications for benefits such as work authorization, permanent residency and naturalization."

On June 2003, at the nomination hearing of Aguirre, Senator Orrin Hatch said BCIS "inherited the legacy of its predecessor, such as an enormous backlog of applications waiting to be adjudicated."

Previously, in July 2001, President George W. Bush had set a six-month goal for processing legal immigration petitions from start to finish.

That's why Aguirre was proud to inform the audience gathered at the Levine Museum that during 2004 BCIS had reduced its case backlog from 4 million to 2.3 million.

I was very happy to hear those figures. Personally, I have experienced the INS inefficiency. My citizenship process took several years in the mid '90s.

Aguirre was fulfilling his promise, clearing up the red tape. Our local hero was a real hero, and BCIS had turned to the path of a first-rate customer service-oriented institution.

Now, the so-called USCIS is an agency demonized by anti-immigrant detractors.

Michael J. Maxwell, former head of security at USCIS, has received full coverage in the pages of CL, as a reliable source about the internal affairs at the federal agency.

He worked under Aguirre's supervision and left the agency now run by Emilio T. Gonzalez.

Maxwell has testified before the US Congress pleading against any program aimed to regularize undocumented immigrants.

He has argued corruption and terrorism, but behind him the shadow of his lawyer Rosemary Jenks appeared.

Jenks is known for giving frequent legislative assistance to the Immigration Reform Caucus chaired by congressman Tom Tancredo. Plus, she is a former senior fellow of the Center for Immigration Studies and present director of Government Relations for Numbers USA, two main national restrictionist organizations.

"Even illegal aliens deserve humane treatment as they are detected, detained and deported," says Roy Beck, executive director of Numbers USA in its Web site.

I am afraid the information Maxwell is giving to our own Tara Servatius is not quite accurate.

"That's wrong," said Jose Pertierra, a well recognized national immigration attorney, in reference to the easiness to apply for lawful permanent resident status and the expedite reception of a work permit, as was described by Tara in her column "Memo to Terrorists."

"The mailing of a work authorization document neither is a sure thing," Pertierra added.

Unfortunately, we do not live in Alice's Wonderland, but in a real world where immigration authorities do not give away documents like lollipops in kindergarten.

The living proof: 12 million undocumented people praying for a miracle to occur.

Meanwhile, I am waiting for Maxwell to reveal the name of the first Hispanic naturalized citizen who is a member of a terrorist organization conspiring against the US.

Rafael Prieto Zartha is the editor of the Charlotte-based Spanish-language newspaper Mi Gente.

Editor's note: This is the unedited version of the "My People" column that ran in Issue 24 (08/16) of Creative Loafing. For the edited version, click here. Tara Sevatius' detailed response available here.